Daytona 500 Winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr Emphasizes Hendrick Motorsports Contribution in His Playoff Contention

With over a decade in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ricky Stenhouse Jr has come a long way. It was in 2017 that he last made it to the playoffs, in fact, the only time he has done so in his career. While he has come close in the last five years, the feeling hasn’t been as strong as it is this season. After winning the Daytona 500 this campaign, Stenhouse Jr had the perfect start.

While not many expected the JTG Daughtery Racing driver to win the season opener, he certainly has followed up with an impressive run this year. In fact, he is in a strong position to make it to playoffs for the second time in his career and has Hendrick Motorsports to thank for that.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr credits Hendrick Motorsports for a good run this season

Currently, Ricky Stenhouse Jr sits in 14th place on the Cup Series table. With a win, two top-five, and seven top-ten finishes, he looks to be heading toward the playoffs with four races to go. It is certainly a massive improvement from last year when he ended up 26th in the standings.

Winning the Daytona 500 this year was a mental game-changer for Stenhouse Jr. While it was pretty evident with his unusual celebration then, his turnaround in form has certainly highlighted the importance of the Daytona win. Recently, he spoke to Fox Sports journalist Bob Pockrass about how things have significantly changed for him.

At first, Stenhouse Jr credited crew chief Mike Kelley for helping him out. He said, “He’s been behind the scenes since I’ve been at JTG and really worked hard on building this new car for JTG and knows all the ins and outs of it and all the small details that it takes to get these cars around the racetrack.” 

Stenhouse Jr added, “He’s a great team leader. He believes in me, believes in every single one of our guys and I feel like he gets more out of us than we think is capable sometimes.” However, the 35-year-old was quick to mention how Hendrick Motorsports also played a key role in his form this year.

Stenhouse Jr said, “We had a lot of changes this offseason. One being we got a better alliance with Hendrick Motorsports and with Chevrolet, and that has helped tremendously.” For those unaware, JTG Daughtery Racing has a technical alliance with HMS.

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In fact, for the Daytona 500 winner, Stenhouse Jr’s car had an engine from Hendrick Motorsports. So technically, they did help him big time. While it was a magical moment for Stenhouse Jr then, he explained how his former teammate Tony Stewart felt about it.

“Proud dad moment’: Ricky Stenhouse Jr reveals Tony Stewart’s reaction to his Daytona 500 win

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Without a doubt, Tony Stewart remains one of the biggest names in the Cup Series history. While the versatile driver has stamped his authority on a variety of tracks in a variety of vehicles, winning a Daytona 500 remains a dream unfulfilled. Having said that, he has been an amazing mentor and colleague to Ricky Stenhouse Jr in his career.

Speaking with Bob Pockrass, Stenhouse Jr revealed what happened when he visited Stewart in his bus after the Daytona 500 win. He said, “I don’t remind him that I won a Daytona 500. But going to his bus after the race, he took my ring off and was looking at it. You could tell what emotions were going through his mind and kind of how proud he was of me.”

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The #47 driver continues, “I raced for Tony, and he did a lot for me in my career to get me to where I am. And you can see that he was kind of a proud dad moment there looking at that ring. He definitely said he would trade a championship for it.” While Stewart would trade his championship, he would definitely be vouching for Stenhouse Jr to win one this season.